This month we are glad to present you a special edition of the Policy in Focus magazine, Social Protection: towards gender equality, launched ahead of the International Women’s Day 2017, and a variety of new publications.

We also bring you the latest news and updates on the IPC-IG's activities.

The new issue of Policy in FocusSocial protection: towards gender equality comprises 10 articles covering key topics related to gender equality and social protection. It features a wide range of contributions from women policy practitioners and scholars, presenting case studies and reflections from Brazil and various African countries. It was auspiciously released for International Women’s Day 2017.

From 27 February to 3 March, the Centre delivered a monitoring and evaluation (M&E) course on social protection systems in Maputo, Mozambique, to a gender-balanced group of students. The course was tailor-made for policymakers of the Mozambican Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Action (MGCAS) and the Institute for Social Action (INAS). It provided participants with a solid understanding of M&E practices for the social protection sector, as well as day-to-day functions and activities.

The IPC-IG’s delegation included Senior Research Coordinator Fabio Veras, Senior Project Management Officer Lívia Nogueira, Ipea Researcher and IPC-IG Research Associate Antonio Claret Neto, and Ipea Researcher Joana Mostafa. The course was developed under the scope of a new project between the IPC- IG and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), as part of the European Union Social Protection Systems Programme (EU-SPS).

Sharing knowledge regarding women’s empowerment

The IPC-IG, the United Kingdom Embassy in Brazil and the UK Ministry for International Development (DFID)jointly organized an event to launch the new special edition of the Policy in Focus magazine, Social Protection: Towards Gender Equality. This launch marked the beginning of the celebrations for International Women's Day 2017, on 8 March.

Mr. Wasim Mir, Chargé d'Affaires at the British Embassy in Brazil, and Ms. Marise Nogueira, Head of the Social Affairs Division of the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, delivered the opening remarks. The discussion panel gathered Mr. Indranil Chakrabarti, Counsellor for DFID in Brazil, Mr.Wófsi Yuri de Souza, General Coordinator of the General Coordination of Technical Cooperation and Partnerships with Developed Countries (CGTP) of the Brazilian Cooperation Agency, and Ms. Raquel Tebaldi, Research Assistant and co-editor of the magazine.

IPC-IG Senior Research Coordinators Fábio Veras and Rafael Osorio, and Research Associate Pedro Arruda travelled to Cairo, Egypt, from 5 to 9 March, for the inception mission of the project that will review and improve the child-sensitive monitoring and evaluation systems of the country's cash transfer programmes. This joint mission was organised by UNICEF.

The team met with the country’s Minister of Social Solidarity, H.E. Mrs. Ghada Waly, to discuss means of producing child-sensitive data on poverty and vulnerability that can contribute towards improving the effectiveness of Egypt’s flagship cash transfer programmes: Takaful, Karama and Damon. They also held meetings with representatives of the ministries of Education and Health and Population, with the local UNICEF and World Food Programme (WFP) teams, and conducted interviews and field visits